You’re toiling away in the office and you look up and you realize that it is almost time for the end of the day announcements. You think to yourself, “where did the time go?” Or you may even be thinking…”wow, this day lasted forever and I haven’t even made a dent in my to do list yet.” It feels like you have hardly left your chair and you have been staring at a computer for the entire day. This seems to be the reality of a lot of people who work in administration. The endless duties of a principal or vice principal to run the back end of the school, the constant problem solving of concerns brought to your desk, the rat race of a budget or staffing and trying to puzzle it all together, the paper work, the emails, etc. It all seems endless!
However, the one thing that brings traction, passion, purpose and fulfillment always seems to get pushed to the wayside. That one thing that pulls the school altogether, validates the work that people do, and inspires and motivates people to take action seems to dwindle. I am talking about the relationship building between you, the teachers, the EAs, and the students. No matter what paper work or to do tasks we have going on, visibility and connection, should always be at the top of the priority pile. Now, I know what you are thinking…”I would love to be in the classrooms more often, or be more visible and connected, but I just do not have time.” Ok….tough love, my friend….we have to make the time. And….more often than not, the connection stuff is the hard stuff and the risky stuff so we tend to push that to the wayside. I know this because I used to do this a lot. I would tell myself that I would get into classrooms another day and that the paperwork or board office stuff was pressing and more urgent. Not true…the people should come first. Once I figured that out and developed some systems to make sure I was connected every single day, I started to have way more success and trust in my leadership and I felt more fulfilled and happy too.
So….here are some systems that I put in place to ensure that I had connection with the people every single day. Some of the systems took a little more time and effort and others are quicker check ins.
Set up your office as a brag hub. The office doesn’t always have to be a place where kids go to get in trouble. Instead, try to set it up as a place to show off the incredible work teachers and students are doing. Get teachers to start sending kids down to show off the incredible work they are doing and celebrate the guts out of their hard work! Heck, even make a mention of their amazingness on the announcements! Our admin assistants even get involved in the celebration as kids make their way into your office. The feeling they get when their work is noticed is like no other. The teacher also feels validated as well because of the work they did to make this student work happen. I even have a running digital portfolio and I take pics of the students work and use it in staff meetings as part of my mini lessons. If you feel like you may never get work done because kids are in your office all day, set up specific times where your office is open for some celebrations of student’s work to keep it more organized.
Do some walk throughs of classrooms and leave sticky notes on the door about what you noticed as you walked through the room. I always like to be an active observer rather than sit at the back and type on my computer. In walk throughs, I will walk in and sit with the students and then write three things I noticed as I observed. These might be things that the teacher did or a specific student and then I post them on their door as I walk out of the room. I might even leave sticky notes on the teacher or student’s desk. This is a quick way to give immediate feedback and validation. The students love this and so do the teachers!
Set up a team teaching time with a teacher. This strategy takes a little more time but it makes a big impact. Set up a pre meeting with a teacher to plan a lesson or work on a strategy that they may be struggling with or wondering about. Next, set up a time that week to team teach that lesson (not observe but teach it together) and then set up a post meeting. I always like to include the students in this as well by telling them that they are about to observe two teachers (admin and teacher) learning a new strategy and then we ask for their feedback from the students as well. It is so powerful for students to see their admin and teacher as learners learning and working together right in front of their eyes.
Take your ipad and go on an artifact hunt around the school. As you walk the halls, take pictures of the visible learning and teaching that is happening and use it for the next staff meeting. When teachers see the work they are doing being validated, it builds connection and inspires and motivates them to keep going. It also makes their work visible to other teachers as well. Sometimes I will highlight a few teachers work and ask them if they could talk about how they got their students to do that in table talk time during a staff meeting. This is a very powerful way to build connection and get the teachers doing more of the thinking and learning during a staff meeting rather than sitting and listening to the endless housekeeping tasks.
Little notes and thank you cards go a long way. You could also set up a book that starts with you writing in it to one teacher about the things you notice about their teaching. Next, you would give it to them and then have them write a note to another teacher and get them to pass it on. You could set up a few books that way. This gets teachers noticing each other and validating and connecting with each other.
Tell jokes on the announcements and have kids be involved in the announcements. Announcements can be a huge way to connect with the school. Think about ways that you can get kids involved and spread joy through the announcements. Kids love to tell jokes so have a few come down some time to be involved in the joke telling. It is a wonderful way to spread joy.
Play pranks. Yep, you heard me. Set up some harmless and appropriate pranks every so often and watch the joy and connection that comes from it. We love to set up a fart machine in the office and as kids come to sign off the bus, we make it look like the secretary let one rip. The laughter and connection that come from that is priceless! Not to mention it makes our day way more fun. We even have teachers and classes playing pranks on each other every so often.
Set up a schoolwide game. This is always a huge connection builder for our school. We play a schoolwide survivor game where the classes are teams and each day we pull names to be voted off the island. They must do a task as a class to get back into the game. The last three classes pulled get class parties. We post on facebook and the parents love it too! In fact, some teachers, students, and parents say it is their favorite part about our school!
Set up some food trucks for the parent community. We love this one for building connection with parents. We do this twice a year. We usually do this at the beginning and end of the school year. Parent council also gets involved to plan some fun events and we do the food truck booking. It is a great community builder and food trucks are always a hit.
Schedule in fireside chats at least once a year with teachers. This is so important to just sit and talk and find out how they are. It does take some time but the impact is so worth it.
Here is the thing…connection is the best way to build a thriving culture. In order for connection to happen, we have to schedule it in. So….schedule it in. Just remember, not all of these ideas take hours. Some take minutes and it really does go a long way. We have to be intentional about making time for connection or else all the busy stuff and paper work will take over. Connection will change everything, I promise…but it will take some work and re-shifting of your priorities and…setting up some systems along the way. If connection is there, then people feel validated, motivated, and actually want to be there. Connection will solve a lot of problems. But it takes some work and is something that simply must happen.
Here’s to building a thriving culture through building relationships!
I have a free guide that talks about ways to invite people to your table, engage them, and empower them to teach others. You can download it here.
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